Hard Luck Louie won the opening diamond lead with the ace in hand. He saw that his contract was cold if he could hold his trump losers to one. The only danger was a 4-0 split, most unlikely, but there was a well-known safety play with this combination.

Louie cashed his ace of hearts, and was proud of his technique when East showed out. He led another heart toward dummy's king-nine, and all would have been well had West split his honors. West, however, cleverly played low. Dummy's nine won the trick, but Louie could no longer handle the hand. Should he ruff a diamond with dummy's king of trumps, he would have two trump losers. Whatever he did, he still had to lose a trump and a diamond. "Curse my luck," said Louie. "Even the textbook safety play didn't work on this hand." Louie missed a subtle point — the textbook play couldn't work when he needed one of dummy's trumps for a diamond ruff.

Lucky Larry also declared this hand in six hearts, also with the king of diamonds lead. Tackling the same trump problem, Larry led a low trump at trick two and inserted dummy's nine when West played low. It was clear sailing after this held the trick, Had West shown out on the first heart, Larry would have played the king from dummy and continued the suit for a finesse. Either way, there would be no trouble discarding one diamond loser and ruffing the other, using his clubs for communication. Well done!